Li Auto and SEVB establish joint venture for battery production
Li Auto has primarily offered electric vehicles with range extenders to date. However, since 2024, the Chinese car manufacturer has been focusing more on purely electric cars. As a result, the drive battery is becoming increasingly important, which is why the company wants to have a greater influence on the development and production of power storage systems.
Li Auto is now entering into a joint venture with battery manufacturer SEVB, which belongs to Sunwoda, for the production and sale of lithium-ion batteries. Both companies hold half of the shares in the company, which has already been registered with the Shanghai Market Regulation Authority.
Li Auto already cooperates with industry giant CATL in the battery sector. However, this cooperation, which was also extended for another five years on 23 September, is only a development partnership, while the car manufacturer has developed the batteries manufactured jointly with SEVB entirely on its own. Li Auto now employs a research and development team that focuses entirely on energy storage and now comprises 200 people.
The focus is on batteries that can be charged particularly quickly and have a charging rate of 5C. The team is not only working on cell chemistries, but also on the structure and control software of the battery. Li Auto CEO Ma Donghui is said to thoroughly review the progress of his battery engineers every two weeks.
Li Auto already held shares in SEVB
Drive batteries still account for 30 to 35 per cent of the total cost of an electric car. The joint venture with SEVB gives Li Auto better control over its supply chain and cost structure. The Sunwoda subsidiary is still relatively new to the electric car battery business. Until now, the company mainly manufactured power storage devices for consumer electronics, but later expanded into the EV sector. The former business area still accounts for more than half of SEVB’s revenue.
Li Auto and the battery manufacturer have been working together since 2017. In 2022, the carmaker invested 400 million yuan, or around 47.5 million euros, in SEVB, giving the OEM a 3.22 per cent stake in the company. Since 2023, 1,300 SEVB employees have been working exclusively for the customer Li Auto. This number was increased to 1,700 in June. The supplier’s power storage systems are currently found in the Li Auto L6, L7 Air and L8 Air models.
This article was first published by Elias Holdenried for electrive’s German edition.
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